Winding of yarns



April 25, 1939.

c. w. ADDY r A1.

WINDING OF YARNS Filed July 28, 1936 Patented Apr. 25, 1939 WINDING 0FYARNS Charles Wesley Addy and Reginald Henry John Riley, Spondon, nearDerby, England, assignors to Celanese Corporation of America, acorporation of Delaware Application July 28, 1936, Serial No. 92,966 InGreat Britain August 31, 1935 z'claims. (C1. 24a-43.3)

This invention relates to the Winding of yarns, and is of particularimportance with reference to the packaging of continuous filament yarns,especially continuously with their production. It is to be understood,however, that the invention is not limited to the application just.mentioned The invention is particularly concerned with the packaging ofyarn in the form of cops, i. e. packages of more or less elongated formhaving their ends tapered in opposite directions with or without anintermediate length of cylindrical form.

According to the invention, a cop or like package of novelcharacteristics is produced on a winding device provided with traversemechanism having a stroke extending over a fractional lpart of thelength of the package support combined with an additional traversemechanism that superimposes a traverse of different frequency andcarries the eld of action of the Vprimary traverse overthe whole lengthof the support rst in one direction and then inv the other repeatedly.By reason of the additional traverse, a layer of yarn at one time in thewinding cycle terminates at one end of the package', and later in thecycle terminates some little distance along the length of the package,and so on until the layer reaches the other end of the package,whereupon the procedure reverses until the layer once again reaches thefirst end of the package, and so 'on until a number of complete layersof yarn have been wound on the support. By reason of the shifting of theeld of action of the main traverse, the ends of the package are woundtapered; the package also reaches its greatest diameter at its middle,because of the greater overlapping nearer the middle of the short layersproduced at each stroke of the main traverse mechanism.

The package may have a cylindrical portion midway of its length, e. g.by the total length over which the yarn is traversed exceeding twice thelength of the main traverse. If the main traverse approximates to halfthe length of the package, the package consists of two truncated conesplaced base to base.

The building operation just described may be carried out in a simplewinding operation performed on twisted or untwisted'yarn, the duplextraversing motion being the result of relative motion between a packagesupport and a yarn guide. The operation is, however, particularlyadvantageous when combined with the twisting of the yarn to be packaged,e.'g. the ring-spinning of continuous lainent yarn continuously with itsproduction by the dry or evaporative method.

The one traverse motion may be appliedto the package support and theother to the twisting device, or the combined motion may be applied tothe package only or to the twisting device only. Thus, for example, inone form of apparatus according to the invention, the ring of a ring andtraveller twisting device may be given the combined motion by means of acam providing the traverse extending over apart of the length of thesupport, this cam being connected to a mov- 10 able ring rail by a chainor the like passing over a sprocket or other means by which it isperiodically lengthened and shortened under the control of a second cam.The rates of operation' of the two traverse controlling devices are suchas to impart the desired build to thepackage, and to provide that ineach full traverse of the support only a relatively thin layer of yarnis wound onto the package.

The invention willynow be described in greater detail with reference tothe accompanying drawings in connection with a ring spinning apparatusemploying a traversing ring rail.

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows graphically the traverse employed to build the packageshown in Figs. 1 'and 2;

Fig. 4 shows a further form of package built 'according to theinvention; and

Fig. 5 is a graphic representation of the traverse employed in thepackage of Fig. 4.

Referring to Fig. l, long small-flanged bobbins I are mounted on spindlemountings 2 carried by a xed spindle rail 3, and are rotated by meansyof driving bands 4I A ring rail 4 is supported by lifter rods 5 passingthrough and guided by the spindle rail 3 so as to move parallel to thelength of the bobbins I. Two rows of bobbins I and corresponding ringsare mounted in staggered relationship, as is clearly shown by Figs. land 2.

A horizontal main traverse bar 6 is operated by a heart-shaped cam 'Ithrough a lever8. Chains B connected at oneend by blocks I0 to the bar 6pass round sprockets II rotatable on fixed pivots I2 and have theirother end secured to the respective sprocket II. Sprockets I3 rotatewith the sprockets II and have secured to their periphery at I4 chainsI5 that pass round sprockets I6 rotatable about xed pivots II and areconnected to the lower ends of the lifter rods 5. Chains I8 connected tothe blocks I0 and passing over idle sprockets I9 are secured to Weights20 'heavy `enough to overcome the weight of the lifter rods and ringrail ltogether with static friction.

As the cam 1 rotates through half its motion it overcomes the weights 20and by pulling the chains I5 lifts the lifter rods to which the ringrail 4 is attached. During the remaining half rotation of the cam thechains I5 are released and the weights 20 bring about the lowering ofthe lifter rail, and so on alternately. The throw of the cam 1traverses. the lifter rods by an amount less than the length of thebobbins I.

An auxiliary traverse bar 2| mounted below the bar 6 is operated by aheart-shaped cam 22 through a lever 23 against the pull of a weight 24connected by a chain 25 passing over a sprocket 26 to a block 21 on thebar 2|. Sprockets 28 carried by brackets 29 from the bar 2| receive thechains I5, idle pulleys 30 on xed brackets 3| guiding the chains to andfrom the sprockets 28. Brackets 3| carrying the pulleys 3D and brackets35 carrying the sprockets I3, I6 and I9 are mounted on rails 36, 31secured to the machine frame 38.

As the cam 22 propels the bar 2| to the left, the sprockets 28 draw anincreasing length of loop in thechains I5 between the idle pulleys 30,and therefore reduce the effective length of the chains I5 between thesprockets I3 and I6, so causing the chains I5 to raise the lifter rods 5above the position to which they have been brought by the operation ofthe cam 1 acting through the main traverse bar E. Similarly, while theauxiliary traverse bar 2| is moving to the right, its effect is toreduce the height at which the lifter rods stand under the action of thecam 1. In other words, the effective length of the flexible connectionafforded by the chains I5 between the bar 6 and the rods 5 isalternately increased and decreased by the cam 22, with correspondingincrease and decrease in the basic height of, the rods 5 from which thetraverse movement imposed by the cam 'I extends.

The cam 22 is driven by any suitable means at a lower rate of rotationthan the cam 1, so that during one half rotation of the cam 'I thelifter rods 5 are raised by an amount equal to the throw of the cam 1plus or minus the small amount that the cam 22 has thrown during thesame period. The effect of the two cams can easily be followed from Fig.3. If both cams are moving the bars 6, 2| to the left, one halfrevolution of the cam 1 raises the rods 5 by an amount a equal tothethrow of the cam 1, to-

gether with a lesser amount b due to the effect of the slower moving cam22. In the next half revolution of the cam 'I the rods 5 are lowered bythe amount a. less the same amount b by which the cam 22 is trying tolift the rods 5. Therefore, after one complete revolution of the cam 1the lifter rods have raised the ring rail 4 by an amount equal to 2b.This lifting continues until the full effect of the throw of the cam 22is felt, by which time the two cams have raised the traverse from thebottom flange of the bobbin to the top flange. The cam 22 then tends tolower the lifter rods 5 so that the traverse again falls short of thetop flange of the bobbin, until it again reaches the bottom flange, tocomplete one winding cycle.

Yarn is thus applied to the bobbin by a series of relatively shorttraverses which in one revolution of the cam 22 move from the length ofthe bobbin adjacent to the vbottom flange to the length adjacent to thetop flange and back once more to the length adjacent to the bottomflange, with the result that approaching the middle of the bobbin fromeither flange a gradually increasing thickness of yarn is applied. Thenext revolution of the cam 22 causes a further complete layer of yarn tobe applied to the bobbin, completely covering the first layer, as manysuch layers being wound as is necessary to fill the bobbin to capacity.The final shape of the yarn on the bobbin is indicated in Figs. 1 and 2,the two halves of the bobbin being substantially conical when theheart-cam 1 has a uniform rate of throw. Modifications in the shape ofthe package can be eected by modifying the shape of the cam. l

If the length of the package does not approximately equal twice thethrow of the cam 1, i. e. if the throw of the cam 22 i's not roughlyequal to that of the cam 1, the package is wound with a centralcylindrical portion of length c equal tothe difference in the throws ofthe two cams, as shown in Fig. 4, Fig. 5 showing the traversing of theyarn in this case.

The common shaft 42 serves for driving the cam 1 and the cam 22, a largepulley 43 on the shaft 42 driving a small pulley 44 onthe shaft 45 ofthe cam 1 and a small pulley 46 on the shaft 42 driving a large pulley41 on the shaft 48 of the cam 22.- In this way the cam 22 is caused torotate more slowly than the cam 1.

The packages shown in Figs. wound on flanged bobbins, and that in Fig. 4is wound onto a plain tube. In either case, the yarn can readily bewithdrawn by over-end un- Winding.

The packages present the important advantage that since each is formedof a number of complete layers each passing from end to end of thepackage, it is possible to dress off damaged yarn from any part of thesurface of the package so as quickly to expose undamaged yarn beneath.Again, the package support is not exposed during unwinding until thelast half layer of yarn is reached on the support, when the supportbecomes progressively exposed by the unwinding of this last half layer.Consequently, if the support itself is rough, damaged, or otherwisecapable of hindering the unwinding of the yarn next to its surface oreven damaging the yarn, this condition does not arise until the bulk ofthe yarn has been removed.

Further, the traversing mechanism described above permits winding of thepackage to be commenced at any point in the cycle of operations of themechanism. Therefore, as in the case of the apparatus illustrated, wherethe twofold traverse mechanism is used with a large number of twistingand winding devices, each of the devices may be independently operatedas far as beginning and ending of each winding operation is concerned.The invention is therefore particularly suited for lthe winding ofcontinuous filament yarn continuously with its production, especially by'the dry or evaporative method, since it enables each twisting andwinding unit to be operated independently, and therefore permits thetwisting and winding of the continuously produced yarn to takeA placewith the least possible delay between the completion of one package andthe starting of another. Figs. 1 and 2 show the yarns 32 being fed tothe packages from feed-rollers 33 of the type used in the dry-spinningof cellulose acetate filaments, the yarns passing from the feed-rollersto the usual balloon guides 34.

land 2 are -'I'he invention may be applied to the winding of cop-likepackages of various sizes both as regards diameter and length. Usingring and traveller devices as shown in the drawings, cops of severalpounds weight of twisted yarn may be produced. The invention is not,however, limited to the use of any particular form of twisting device.Thus, cap-spinning devices may also be employed.

Where continuous filaments are being wound, particularly where theprincipal traversing device is such as to impart a substantiallyparallel wind, it is important that the angle of the surface of thepackage to its axis should be sufficiently low (e. g. 10) to impartstability and prevent sloughing olf.

It may also be important in winding some yarns that the rate ofoperation of the one traversing device in relation to that of the othershould be such that the two devices are out of phase, thereby avoidingturns of one layer of yarn coinciding with layers of a preceding turn.This out-of-phase working of the two cams 'I and 22 can readily beprovided for by suitable selection of the rates of rotation of the cams.

Having described our invention, what we desire to secure by LettersPatent is:

1. Apparatus for winding cops and like packages, comprising means forrotating a package support, a traverse member movable lengthwise of thesupport, a flexible member connected to the traverse member, meansincluding a traverse bar for alternately pulling and releasing theflexible connection so as to move the traverse member over a length lessthan the length of the support, and further means operating at adiierent frequency to increase and decrease alternately the effectivelength of the ilexible connection so as to extend the eld oi.' actionoi.' the traverse member iirst towards one end of the support and thentowards the other, said further means comprising an auxiliary traversebar parallel to the ilrst mentioned traverse bar and operativelyconnected thereto by .means of said flexible member.

2. Apparatus for winding cops and like packages comprising means forrotating a package support, a traverse member movable lengthwise of thesupport, 'a ilexible member connected to the traverse member, meansincluding a horizontal traverse bar for alternately pulling andreleasing the flexible connection so as to move the traverse member overa length less than the length of the support, and an auxiliary traversebar parallel to and spaced from the first mentioned traverse bar andoperatively connected thereto by said ilexible member, a cam and leveradapted to operate the auxiliary traverse bar at a diilerent frequencythan the first mentioned traverse bar to increase and decreasealternately the effective length of the flexible connection to thetraverse member so as to extend the field of action of the traversemember rst towards one end of the support and then towards the other.

CHARLES WESLEY ADDY. REGINALD HENRY JOHN RILEY.

